The Ocean's Roar: A Tiger Shifter and Mermaid Romance (The Protectors Quick Bites Book 3)

by Keira Blackwood

  Perhaps I was on my way to meet them. But then again, reality was never so kind.

  And then there were the murders...first the Tribunal shifter from the surface, killed by a siren. Then Kyril, killed by the surface warrior Waffles Lick.

  Peace was fragile, and we needed to work together to maintain it, me and Vaughn.

  In the darkness, images of his face flashed before me.

  His sandy hair, his easy smile, the way his brown eyes lit when he looked at me—all of it filled me with joy. Every moment together was a treasure.

  The hair on his jaw, the softness and insistence of his lips—I wanted more, I wanted him.

  Was this what it felt like to be a shifter who’d found her mate? To know unquestionably that this person filled a piece of me that I’d never known was missing before I met him? Was this love?

  An echo of Vaughn’s smile lingered in the darkness, but his face faded away.

  “Vaughn.” I reached out into the void for him, but he wasn’t there.

  He was in danger. We were at the fifth temple, and the guardians—

  I willed my mind to wake, my body to move.

  I remembered the needle—I’d been drugged. How much time had passed? Where was I? Was Vaughn okay?

  Darkness began to fade, and awareness of my body began to return. I couldn’t move, but consciousness was improvement.

  My left side was cold, and there was something hard beneath me. My body was still, no longer being carried. Where was I? On the floor inside the temple?

  “It’s still not working,” said a female voice.

  A voice...

  “Try another one,” a male voice answered.

  Both voices were familiar. I knew that I should know who was here...but everything was still foggy.

  “I already did,” said the woman. “Feel free to do it yourself.”

  That attitude...Ligeia? It had to be her, but what was she doing here?

  “You shouldn’t have killed all of the guardians,” said the man.

  “Fine, Rose,” my sister said. “Next time, I’ll let them skewer you.”

  Rose? Hugo Rose? Why would my sister be with him? And if Ligeia had killed the guardians who’d taken me, what did that mean? No, this didn’t feel like a rescue. Where was Vaughn?

  There were sounds of movement in the water.

  “We still have one guardian left, so we’ll return to the original plan,” Rose said.

  “You mean use my sister.”

  “Is that a problem?” Rose asked. “You didn’t have an issue with using her before.”

  Using me? For what?

  I listened for my sister to defend herself, to deny his claims.

  Nothing.

  “Remember, Ligeia, the plan was yours as much as mine. And it was you who bloodied your hands to set this series of events into motion.”

  I tried moving my finger, and it twitched. And my tail—just the slightest flick, not enough to attract attention, but enough to know I could move. Wiggling a finger and flicking my tail weren’t the same as total body control, but it was a start, and it meant I might stand a chance.

  Whatever they were planning to use me for, I would not comply.

  “More guardians may still come, or your father—” Rose’s voice was all command.

  “He’s not my father.”

  “Fine. But semantics won’t change the fact that we need this door open now. Wake her.”

  I could feel the water move around me, tickling my skin. Someone was approaching.

  “She’s already awake.” Ligeia’s voice was close.

  This was it, my shot to find the answers Vaughn and I had searched for. Or to fight.

  My eyes shot open and I whipped my tail around. But Ligeia in siren form was too fast. A flash of green scales, of vertical eyes and sharp fangs was all I saw. And I missed her.

  She grabbed my arm and lifted me from the stone floor.

  My reflexes were stunted, my head swirling with the motion. The sedative was still in my system, and I was screwed.

  Worse was the sense of betrayal I felt seeing my sister here with Rose. He’d said they were partners. He’d said she had bloodied her hands for him. He’d said she would use me.

  “What’s going on, sister? Why are you doing this?” My voice sounded weak to my ears as she twisted my arm behind my back and pushed me toward Rose, toward a wall with intricate circular markings.

  “Put her palms out,” Rose commanded.

  Ligeia twisted my arms in front of me. She was rough. I would fight back. I had to fight back. I just didn’t know how, yet.

  The wall was cold on my palms, metal instead of stone.

  “Nothing’s happening,” Ligeia said. Her green face was twisted in anger.

  I looked for a sign that the whole situation was a misunderstanding, that Ligeia would choose her family over…

  “What is he to you?” I asked. “What reason could you have to betray your kin?”

  “Besides a good lay?” Ligeia crooned in my ear. “He’s nothing but a means to an end.”

  “What end? Sister, you don’t have to do this.”

  She held my arms in place, even as I struggled. Metal fibers snaked over my fingers, wove around my wrists.

  Ligeia let go and stepped back.

  I was trapped, no matter how hard I fought.

  “Yes,” Rose said, and took a step closer. “Open for me.”

  Panic welled in my chest. My hands disappeared, and they tingled as if pierced by hot pins and needles. What was happening?

  Rose turned. He lifted a weapon from his belt, the surface weapon that his men had used before.

  I couldn’t turn enough to see, I couldn’t—

  The metal boomed, causing ripples through the water. Rose had fired a shot at someone, but it wasn’t Ligeia and it wasn’t me.

  “Waffles.” The voice belonged to Vaughn. “Joey.”

  My pulse thrummed in my ears.

  Vaughn was here.

  He came into my periphery, bare as he had been in the coralinite tank. He dove into Rose and wrestled the weapon from his hands.

  Both men changed before my eyes, sprouting fur and turning into beasts as they tore at each other.

  Not long ago, I’d wondered what it would be like to see Vaughn in his beast form, but a part of me had been afraid of the side of him I had not seen. But as fur sprouted and his body transformed, my feelings for him didn’t change. He was still Vaughn.

  His fur was striped orange and black, vibrant and beautiful over his lithe and agile frame.

  The tiger dwarfed the gray beast. They tore at each other with claws and fangs, but it was clear Vaughn had the advantage.

  The gray beast swiped at Vaughn’s face. When Vaughn recoiled, Rose dove away.

  His shape transformed back to that of the man, and he scrambled for his weapon.

  Before he got far, Vaughn was on him, tackling the naked man to the stone floor.

  The weapon boomed a second time, held tight in Rose’s fist. Blood seeped into the water, and Vaughn fell back.

  “Vaughn!” I cried.

  The wall creaked, and the metal that held my hands in place recoiled. I was free.

  The metal split, separating slowly into an entry—a door.

  Ignoring the door, I swam for Vaughn, only to find both he and Waffles Lick floated motionlessly in the water, their blood blooming around them as it left their bodies.

  I was too late.

  “Vaughn!” Tears poured from my eyes, mixing with the salt water, as I reached the man I loved. My forever, my mate. I held my hand over the seeping wound, though I feared it wouldn’t be enough.

  “You know guardians are the only sentient creatures in this watery hellhole that mate for life like shifters?” Rose’s voice came from behind me.

  I’d kill him.

  I’d lost my trident on the way here, but I had brought a second for Vaughn. It was still on my hip.

  I slid my hand slowly over th
e weapon, ready to strike.

  Slow and steady, I pulled the hilt from its holster.

  “I learned all about it when I researched the device, the Source, before. Twenty years ago the guardians allowed shifters and mermaids and sirens into the temples.”

  I slowly rose from the floor.

  “I knew your parents back then,” he said. “I’m sure Balthasar never told you. But I knew them. Irina and Egan—they killed my mate.”

  I turned my head slowly, so not to startle Rose. I met his hateful gaze as he looked at me with his weapon aimed at my chest.

  “If my parents were guardians,” I said, “then your mate must have caused harm to the temple. She deserved it.”

  “Shut up! You know nothing, girl.” His face was filled with fury, resentment burned in his eyes. He meant to kill me, but I’d kill him first.

  I inched forward.

  “Don’t move.” Rose aimed his gun at my chest, hands quivering.

  A little closer and I’d have him. I could draw my trident and stab through his heart before he could pull the trigger. But I needed to be just a little closer.

  “I paid them back,” he said. “Both of them. And now the device will be mine, as it should have been before. The device will be mine, and you can join your guardian parents in fish hell.”

  He leveled his weapon and I dove, not knowing who would fall first.

  Sharp, green claws slashed open his throat, and Rose collapsed into Ligeia behind him. He pawed at his gaping neck, until his arms grew limp and Ligeia let him fall.

  I looked at my sister, a million questions running through my head, all of which could be summed up in a single word.

  “Why?”

  “He promised me chaos,” Ligeia said. “And he promised not to harm you.”

  Chapter Twelve

  Vaughn

  My eyes shot open and I gasped for air.

  There was water instead, but I was glad for that, too, thanks to the lobster in my belly.

  My chest hurt like hell, but that’s expected after getting shot. It would heal. It already was on its way.

  I cringed as I sat up, and looked around the open entry of Zeus’s temple.

  Briny Bastards poured out of the open gateway, swords drawn.

  They surrounded a green siren and Selene. I sighed with relief. Selene, she was okay.

  Both women put their hands up in submission.

  “Wow! Can you believe it?” a voice said to the side of me.

  I turned to find Waffles alive and well, eyes huge and sparkling like a cartoon character seeing a woman for the first time.

  He was practically drooling as he watched the commotion...or was it just the green siren with stabby teeth?

  Was that really Ligeia? If so, she was definitely the murderer from the dock. There was no other face quite like her fish one, or so I hoped.

  A pair of guardians dragged Waffles to his feet. They did the same to me.

  “Easy,” I said. “We’re all friends here.”

  “Daughter of Irina.” One of the guardians moved in front of Selene and took her hand in his.

  I didn’t care much for that, but we were outgunned, outclawed, outmaneuvered, and this dude didn’t seem to mean her any harm. Still, I moved to be by her side, but I was stopped by a big-ass curved sword around my throat.

  “What do you want from me?” Selene asked.

  “Only to protect you,” the Briny Bastard said. His face was hard, that of a warrior, not that the golden armor and comfort with his pointy weapon didn’t already give that away.

  “Protect? You consider drugging me and taking me against my will protection?”

  “We do what we must to keep our kind safe. Those of the surface only mean to use you to reach the Source. We refuse to make the same mistake twice.”

  “You mean trusting Rose?” she asked. “Because he’s dead.”

  Ligeia smiled, a creepy as hell grin with those protruding needle teeth.

  “Vaughn and Waffles Lick mean you no harm,” Selene added. “Let us leave.”

  “You should stay with—” The guardian cut short and scowled at the entry behind me.

  I turned, following his gaze, and found Balthasar Aegaeon and his mer-brigade storming the temple.

  At the front of the pack was Aegaeon, leading the charge. His cool indifference was completely gone. I understood his frustration—his daughters were here, in harm’s way. Behind the blue-haired giant were a bunch of other tailed dudes in black leotards and carrying big forks. Among them were a few sirens with pointed teeth and big eyes, with webbed feet instead of tails.

  All of the Defense Ministry’s soldiers were ready for a fight.

  “Return my daughters to me, at once,” Aegaeon boomed.

  “You speak as though you have authority here, Aegaeon of the towers,” said the Briny Bastard who seemed to do all of the talking.

  While everyone’s attention was on the newcomers, I slipped between swords and over to Selene.

  The guardians watching her looked at me but said nothing.

  Selene touched my chest, where the bullet wound had nearly healed over.

  “I’m a fast healer,” I said softly.

  She wrapped her arms around me, and I squeezed back.

  “Selene?” Aegaeon looked at the two of us.

  She pulled away slowly. I understood. We were both soldiers, and we had to answer to our commanders. Unless one of those commanders was Rose, of course.

  “Rose and Ligeia conspired to take the Source,” she said. “Vaughn and Waffles Lick are innocent.”

  Aegaeon said nothing.

  “Let us go in peace,” she said to the guardian beside us, and touched his arm softly. “Please.”

  He looked at her without the hatred he showed the rest of us.

  “I would say you belong with your own kind, here,” he said. “But I can see you have found something more. What we all search for—a mate.”

  She smiled at him. “Yes.”

  He nodded. “If any of the others return, it means death.”

  “Thank you,” Selene replied.

  The Briny Bastards didn’t seem to be such bastards after all. They lowered their weapons and swam deeper into the temple. The big metal gateway, where Selene’s hand had been stuck when I’d arrived, began to close after them.

  Only then did I peer inside.

  Inside was a glowing blue orb, the power source for all of the city, the power source Rose had killed for. It was bright, and when I looked at it, I felt warm inside. I felt...happiness. It was the strangest thing, and I felt drawn to touch it, to hold—

  The doors clasped shut, and the temple became dark once more.

  Was it the Source all along that had started this battle? Did Rose and his mate feel that pull when they’d studied it? Was that why she’d died? Maybe shifters weren’t meant to get so close.

  “Come.” Selene took my hand.

  I spared one last glance at the metal gateway, and one last glance for Hugo Rose, who floated motionless like so many others.

  We followed Aegaeon out of the temple and up to a giant ship floating in the ocean above the temple district. We entered through a hatch where the pressure felt strange, then all at once, the water level moved down, sucked out through vents on the floor.

  Selene and Aegaeon’s tails changed back into legs. Ligeia’s eyes returned to normal, and so did her mouth. Same went for the two Ministry soldiers that came in with us. The people of the ocean really were a lot like shifters.

  My body felt heavy as the sea receded and air filled my lungs.

  It would be strange to breathe again.

  My throat, though, didn’t feel normal. I couldn’t breathe. It was like there was something caught, something sharp and clawing.

  I coughed and gagged.

  Selene put her hand on my back. “Are you okay?”

  I glanced at Waffles to see if it was happening to both of us, but he seemed fine.

  I bent at the
waist, unable to speak, focused entirely on the sensation of air being stolen from my lungs.

  Then I had the urge to hurl. My mouth was full, but not of acidic food. It was full of something sharp and moving.

  I opened my mouth and out flew a little purple lobster.

  It scurried across the floor and into one of the vents along with the remaining seawater.

  “I’ve never—” Selene said. “I can’t believe it survived.”

  “You’re supposed to chew your food.” Waffles rubbed his stomach. “Seems like nobody’s taught you anything, buddy. Good thing you have a friend like me. Next time you want a snack, remember smash it up good with your teeth before you swallow and it goes down your throat hole.”

  I gagged on the sensation still clinging to my tongue.

  “Yeah,” I said. “Thanks.”

  The inner door opened as the last of the water trickled out. We stepped through a blast of hot air into the giant spaceship like submarine. I felt like I’d been through a clothes dryer or a carwash or something.

  Two of the merpeople flanked Ligeia and led her off through the bowels of the ship. Probably to a cell somewhere. Waffles followed them and talked. A lot.

  The last thing I heard was, “So, Linguini, when you get out of jail, wanna have dinner sometime? I can tell you’ll like pasta.”

  She said nothing in return, and just walked calmly with the two guards who held onto her arms.

  I stayed glued to Selene’s side. Even though I knew she was safe here, part of me was afraid that if I didn’t stick close, I could lose her again.

  As we headed to wherever we were going, Aegaeon looked disapprovingly at my nakedness.

  We stopped by a set of metal doors. My guess—another elevator.

  A soldier with blue hair like Aegaeon’s ran up to meet us.

  “Get him something to wear,” Aegaeon said, again scowling at me.

  The dude ran off again, and returned quickly with a leotard just for me. It turned out the skintight black suits were hella comfy. The fabric was so breathable, it felt mostly like being naked.

  Selene watched with amusement as I struggled to figure out the top. It was like it was supposed to button or snap but there weren’t buttons or snaps.

  “Let me.” She put her hands on my chest and I looked down into her beautiful purple eyes as she fixed the suit.